LJS: Langsdorf Interview

[Mavric]

Covered a pretty wide range of topics. But I'll pick one.

 

They continue to say that TA has the leg up in the QB competition. And I think that's where it has to be for now. But I think he lacks what they are looking for the most:

 

LJS: When you're looking at quarterback recruits, what traits are you looking for first?

DL: “I think an accurate thrower with a strong enough arm to make the throws in our offense is most important. I think an athletic guy is always a bonus, especially with a little bit more shotgun that we’re running. The guy’s got to be smart. He’s got to be a football-intelligent guy. And we really have to get that from the coaches, the high school coaches that we’ve talked to, we need a guy that can make adjustments, that can read coverages.

"But I think the starting point is, 'Can he throw strikes? Is he an accurate thrower? Can he make the throws that we need to make in our offense?' And probably then, is how athletic the guy is. Because we’ve had them in all shapes and sizes. We’ve had them from 6-5 to 5-10 and they’ve all been good players for us. So we’re not too caught up on the height. But I think a big, strong, athletic guy is always a plus."

 

Link

 

 

Will be interesting to see if anyone can push TA enough in fall camp to make a run at the job.

[Count 'Bility]

Or to see if Tommy just makes the necessary improvements. It doesnt always have to be about some other guy taking the job with the qb position.

[Hedley Lamarr]

Well we identified 2 signal callers in next years class that appear go meet the entire criteria

[QMany]

LJS: Do people get too caught up in labels?

DL: “Oh, yeah. I don’t think people even know what they mean. I think a lot of people, they reference a spread offense and a West Coast system and a pro style. Those are defined different ways for a lot of people. I think better definitions might be more multiple. For us, when you’re describing us, you’d say we’re more multiple, we’re more one-back, rather than just saying we’re an old-school, pro-style.

 

[BigRedBuster]

 

LJS: Do people get too caught up in labels?

DL: “Oh, yeah. I don’t think people even know what they mean. I think a lot of people, they reference a spread offense and a West Coast system and a pro style. Those are defined different ways for a lot of people. I think better definitions might be more multiple. For us, when you’re describing us, you’d say we’re more multiple, we’re more one-back, rather than just saying we’re an old-school, pro-style.

 

 

 

Some Husker fans just crapped their pants.

[tmfr15]

What is the consensus here at HB as far as direction of the transition? We all know there is going to be a transition from whatever Beck/Bo ran to what Riley is going to run.

 

The specific plan is not all that important to me. It is my feeling that, given the right personnel and coaching, most, if not all philosophies, will work out just fine.

 

Transition is key though.

 

From watching the spring game, I got the hopeful feeling that Riley would work off the schemes the guys were used to and phase in his system as time goes by and as recruiting classes arrive and become acclimated.

 

I am just fine with eliminating clap cadence and having the QB work from under center a bit more, but beyond that, I still think we should run some read option and feature an assortment of runs, plus play action passing and targeted roll outs with one or two reads to make before either running or throwing the ball away.

 

In my scorched earth scenario, Riley insists Callahan style that we must adopt his full plan now and just "go through the growing pains."

 

It is my feeling that if he does that..... get ready for 5-7.... cause its coming.

 

Like I said, the spring game gave me hope. I do remember the Callahan initial spring game and it was a full pro style .... west coast adoption.

 

Are we all feeling like Riley is smarter that Callahan and therefor will choose to phase this thing in slowly?

[Saunders]

I don't think they can afford a forced "growing pains" season. The schedule is not getting any easier the next 3-4 years, so a good showing this season would help provide a shot in the arm to recruiting, which we need. Going forward, Nebraska can't rely on a weak schedule to pad the win column. It will need to be earned honestly.

[theknife]

What is the consensus here at HB as far as direction of the transition? We all know there is going to be a transition from whatever Beck/Bo ran to what Riley is going to run.

 

The specific plan is not all that important to me. It is my feeling that, given the right personnel and coaching, most, if not all philosophies, will work out just fine.

 

Transition is key though.

 

From watching the spring game, I got the hopeful feeling that Riley would work off the schemes the guys were used to and phase in his system as time goes by and as recruiting classes arrive and become acclimated.

 

I am just fine with eliminating clap cadence and having the QB work from under center a bit more, but beyond that, I still think we should run some read option and feature an assortment of runs, plus play action passing and targeted roll outs with one or two reads to make before either running or throwing the ball away.

 

In my scorched earth scenario, Riley insists Callahan style that we must adopt his full plan now and just "go through the growing pains."

 

It is my feeling that if he does that..... get ready for 5-7.... cause its coming.

 

Like I said, the spring game gave me hope. I do remember the Callahan initial spring game and it was a full pro style .... west coast adoption.

 

Are we all feeling like Riley is smarter that Callahan and therefor will choose to phase this thing in slowly?

 

Based on the below and the message coming out of Spring, I don't think we will see a scenario where we ask a Joe Dailey type player to become a West Coast QB overnight like 2004. Also looking at the OSU days, they ran heavy when they had the backs and threw heavy when they did not.

 

LJS: Do you see yourself shifting from what you’ve done in the past?

 

"A little bit. I think our core values, our core system, is definitely in place. We are tweaking some things, but we tweak every year. You go from a guy like Sean Mannion, who is the Pac-12’s career-leading passer who can’t run a lick. He’s not a running threat. He’s an athletic quarterback. He’s going to be a great pro quarterback. But he’s not a run threat. Now to some guys that are. So that changes things a little bit.

"They’re not going to maybe be as far along in the passing game, or as dynamic of throwers, but they have the element of being able to run the ball, which is a great weapon. So I think we have to capitalize on that and that will change us a little bit from what we’ve done the last few years. But I think, overall, you’ll see a lot of the same concepts, route combinations, the run game won’t change much. We will probably be a little bit more shotgun. But you know, Sean’s junior year, we were a ton of shotgun. So that’s not like it’s a new thing for us. But there are a few tweaks that we’ve added to benefit the strength of these quarterbacks.”"

[Landlord]

Riley isn't that stupid, and his offense isn't that drastically different for it to at all turn into a Callahan-esque scenario.

 

 

Our offense throughout the Riley era is going to draw a lot of criticism even if we win games, because frankly (especially for Nebraska fans) it's going to be a pretty boring offense to watch, and it's not going to score 45ppg. But if it scores the points it needs to, who cares?

[Stumpy1]

Riley made a comment in his opening presser that they were going to start implementing spread concepts into his offense at OSU. I'm guessing we see a mixture of Spread and Pro-style going forward. I honestly don't think riley will go back to his 100% pro-style like he ran at OSU.

[36 Skerz]

Stumpy, I 100% agree. If I remember correctly one of the first things Riley did was ask TO why he chose to switch to the option from a pass heavy offense when he was at Nebraska. Riley is trying to get a lot of information from past coaches and adapt his style to what he thinks will work at NU.

[Mavric]

Things that HAVE to improve:

 

[Treand3]

Things that HAVE to improve:

 

https://twitter.com/JonNyatawa/status/618447303745998848

Absolutely.

[darkhorse85]

Riley isn't that stupid, and his offense isn't that drastically different for it to at all turn into a Callahan-esque scenario.

 

 

Our offense throughout the Riley era is going to draw a lot of criticism even if we win games, because frankly (especially for Nebraska fans) it's going to be a pretty boring offense to watch, and it's not going to score 45ppg. But if it scores the points it needs to, who cares?

 

 

"It's not worth winning if you can't win big." - Coach Reilly

 

[lo country]

The whole "multiple" had me throw up, a little. Only because under Beck, multiple meant we did little well. BUT, then I remembered back to the glory days under TO and remembered how multiple we were. Multiple in a multitude of formations, but a "small" number of plays that were executed from multiple formations/looks. The main difference IMO, is TO had a system, recruited for it and coached it. Riley has a system, is recruiting for and repeatedly says he will coach the players not the scheme. As for Beck, it is evident we had no real scheme and Bo recruited anything that would sign with us regardless of fitting the s"scheme".

 

We have something now, we really haven't had since TO (posdiblyFrank) a solid, experienced staff from top to bottom. A staff that is also leaning on the experience of guys who have won at the highest level while at NU. That can't be overlooked.

 

One part I truly liked was the part about the tempo. To paraphrase " sometimes the D needs a rest". Beck never seemed to grasp how the tempo could be used to give the D a break or be used to put the foot to the opponents throat. This staff, gets an extra win or two on experience alone. IIRC, two of the defensive assistants were former DC's, DL coach brought in from UConn as he is a run stop specialist per the web. This alone shows a staff that gets it. We never lost by the pass, we died from a complete inability to stop the run. Enter Langs and his tempo. He will eat the clock, let the D rest/get coached up and keep the ball out of their hands. Smart and experienced.

 

I really think(hope) we are going to like what we see. Riley isn't coming here to pull a Cally and have TA look like Joe Dailey or worse beau Davis